2025 was quite the year for metalcore, with many stalwarts such as Bleeding Through, Employed to Serve, and Killswitch Engage releasing new albums. This gateway sub-genre never goes away, but to say that it can become stale is an understatement. 2026 could very well be a banner year again if my inbox full of metalcore […]

Guess what? It’s officially 2026! Yay, right? Whether you like it or not, time is marching on, and whining about it won’t make it stop… just thinking of the new music to be released this year gives me a small bit of hope for the future. Sunday morning finds me jamming the new album from […]

So, like Sigh’s I Saw the World End-Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV, here is another favorite album of mine from the 2000’s, this time it’s Rotting Christ‘s Aealo from 2010, getting a whole new recording and release. I never covered the original here, as I covered it for a different webzine at the time, but it made […]

17 friggin’ albums. More hits than misses in the Megadeth discography. Megadeth is the final album by Dave Mustaine, the sole remaining original member. Throughout his career, he’s rarely had a consistent line-up, and I liken him to Chuck Schuldiner (RIP) from Death. With the ever-changing live and full-time musicians. However, both individuals knew how […]

Game of Thrones fans will recognize the moniker of this new-ish New York based black metal band that features members of bands like Hollow Voice and Nascentum (neither of which I’m familiar with). And you have to respect the fact that they are leaning into the Game of Thrones thing on their new EP. 6 […]

Stranguliatorius have taken me by surprise and were never previously on my radar. Hailing from the far reaches of Lithuania Flies Don’t Lie is their fourth album, and the band has been around since 2010. The band name almost had me thinking some ancient dinosaur from times past, and honesty I did not know what […]

I have had the promo for the debut album from this California-based symphonic black metal act for a few months now, and it continues the strong 2025 that the genre had, with a fine early entry in 2026. Formed by members of some acts I have not heard of like Mortal Filth, Wartroll amd Horrorborn, […]

I first heard Eximperitus back in 2016 when they released their full-length Prajecyrujučy sinhuliarnaje wypramieńwańnie Daktryny Absaliutnaha j Usiopahłynaĺnaha Zła skroź šaścihrannuju pryzmu Sîn-Ahhī-Erība na hipierpawierchniu zadyjakaĺnaha kaŭčęha zasnawaĺnikaŭ kosmatęchničnaha ordęna palieakantakta, najstaražytnyja ipastasi dawosiewych cywilizacyj prywodziać u ruch ręzanansny transfarmatar časowapadobnaj biaskoncaści budučyni u ćwiardyniach absierwatoryi Nwn-Hu-Kek-Amo (that’s the album title and yes I […]

Germany’s best thrash metal band, Kreator, return with their 16th full-length album, Krushers of the World. When we look at the Big 4, regardless of your thoughts, it is based on album sales and overall popularity relating to tours,etc.., and they are rightfully: Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax. When looking at what the second Big […]

If this EP had been released just a day later, it would be a 2026 release, too bad it was not delayed until a few days into 2026. TerrorVerse is a brand new technical brutal death metal band hailing from Houston, Texas, and this little ditty of an EP is exactly what the doctor ordered. […]

2024s Black Metal Cult was a perfect slab of French Black Metal from Meyhnach’s Mütiilation, and it was my first time covering one of the long-standing powerhouses of French Black Metal. Pandemonium of Egregores is the more melodic follow-up to that church-burning masterpiece, and it’s a certified crusher. Five tracks in 32:05 is just long […]

Well, that didn’t take long for 2026 to drop an early contender for an album that will be on my 2026 year-end list! Upiór (a Polish word meaning ‘Revenant’) is a newish project formed by Tomasz “Josh” Jaskuła, based out of France, and he has some fairly notable folks helping out, including Ben B on […]

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‘Uhhh huh huh. Hey, baby. I heard you like The Black Dahlia Murder’. I have smoothly pressed “Power” on the remote on my living room 10-disc CD changer, which slides out smoothly as I casually drop the new Carrion Vael album, Slay Utterly, into the not-at-all-too-large or gaudy apparatus. It closes instantly because it’s the […]

Much like that weird week between Christmas and New Year’s where time doesn’t exist, there’s a similar fugue in the new year when it comes to reviewing albums at the end of the year/start of the year. We have plenty of 2026 releases to cover, but the tail end of 2025 still saw plenty of […]

After dropping not one, but two albums in 2024, including Graveworms, Cadavers, Coffins and Bones, Sweden’s Carnal Savagery elevated their status in the Swedish death metal ranks from being merely productive and OK, to a solid second-tier act. Especially as the increased Autopsy stench was far more prevalent on the last few efforts amid the […]

It’s safe to say that I’ve never heard of Italy’s Dawn of a Dark Age until now. Ver Sacrum mixes two genres that I love: Black Metal and Jazz. Vittorio Sabelli is an ubër talented mofo, and it’s his warm-as-butter Clarinet that elevates this album to Avantgarde status. Ver Sacrum marks nine albums since 2014, […]

You are familiar with the expectations vs. reality memes, right? Here’s one for you: Expectations: Promos sheet that teased brutal death metal like Suffocation and Immolation, with added cinematic atmospheres, keyboards, and tales of brutal torture and serial killers, or specifically ‘a blood-soaked manifesto of riffs, madness, and horror, dragging the listener into a world […]

Love it or hate it, Deathcore is here to stay, folks. You can not like that fact, but accepting it will make it far less frustrating for you. I make no bones about loving the genre and the city of sin, Las Vegas, which sports a nifty deathcore band, Ov Sulfur. In 2021, they released […]

Guttural Slug is a brutal slam death metal band hailing from Denmark. With three full-length albums under their belt and having not released anything since their last album, Plague of Filth, in 2019, here comes the Ulcers in the Flesh of Thought EP. Much has transpired since the last album. Guitarist Mikkel Sørensen hired a […]

It’s been 10 years since I last heard the Chicago Black metal act Withering Soul. It was 2015’s Adverse Portrait, where the band delivered a far more aggressive and improved take on symphonic black metal, and dropped some of the more gothic/November’s Doom influences from the 2011 debut, No Closure. Now, I have not heard […]

Today we’re going to Sweden. It’s a free trip; all you have to do is read this review. That’s easy enough, right? I’m not asking for anything too crazy, just two minutes of your precious time. I picked Havamal with the hope that I would get a Falkenbach type of thing, because Falkenbach has a […]

There was some fine symphonic/melodic black metal towards the end of 2025 (Argesk, Mystic Circle, Maahes, Achathras, Rotting Demise, Gjallarhorn’s Wrath, etc), and as 2026 starts, there is still a trickle of excellent releases in the style that need your attention from 2025, like WitcherR‘s Öröklét or this effort from Haimad. A few years ago, […]

Back in 2023, I reviewed Dead and Dripping’s Blackened Cerebral Rifts, and I was pretty rough on it. I didn’t like it/ didn’t get it, what-fucking-ever. Anyway, today I went back to it before listening to Nefarious Scintillations, and goddammit, I started to like it. I blame my fellow scribes for my newfound love for Deathcore. They all […]

Back in 2022, I reviewed the solid third album, Lélekharang, from the Hungarian duo, WitcheR (not based on the Andrzej Sapkowski books or Henry Cavill show). It was a very well done style of Summoning-ish styled atmospheric black metal, focusing on more doomy, and moody pacing, complete with programmed drums and tinny guitars, just like […]